Ideas for thesis Initiator des Themas: eva75
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I need to write a terminology thesis and am interested in the area of banking or finance, but as I have done few translations in this area, I am finding it difficult to pinpoint an area that I could deal with in EN, FR and DE. As I would like to specialise in financial translation, I would like to do research in an area that will help me with my translations.
Would any experienced financial translators be prepared to offer me some advice, ie give me some ideas where there are termin... See more I need to write a terminology thesis and am interested in the area of banking or finance, but as I have done few translations in this area, I am finding it difficult to pinpoint an area that I could deal with in EN, FR and DE. As I would like to specialise in financial translation, I would like to do research in an area that will help me with my translations.
Would any experienced financial translators be prepared to offer me some advice, ie give me some ideas where there are terminological difficulties between EN and FR and DE in financial translation? Your help would be very much appreciated.
[Edited at 2005-12-03 19:42]
[Edited at 2005-12-03 19:52] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Gerard de Noord 
Frankreich
Local time: 20:02
Mitglied (2003)
Englisch > Niederländisch
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| The influence of English | Dec 2, 2005 |
Your profile doesn't reveal anything about you. Are you English? Are you living in England? If I had to write a thesis about terminology, and French and German were the other two languages, I'd study the influence of English on those two languages or any one of them. You could narrow it down to looking into the translations of EBT, EBIT and EBITDA, and terms like that.
Financial translators have to translate such terms, but they don't - in the Netherlands, because nobody wants to lo... See more Your profile doesn't reveal anything about you. Are you English? Are you living in England? If I had to write a thesis about terminology, and French and German were the other two languages, I'd study the influence of English on those two languages or any one of them. You could narrow it down to looking into the translations of EBT, EBIT and EBITDA, and terms like that.
Financial translators have to translate such terms, but they don't - in the Netherlands, because nobody wants to look foolish. But e.g. in the case of EBITDA this can lead to confusion and well-informed people losing money. Do English native speakers have an advantage when they read: "Rainmaker Reports Positive EBITDA in Third Quarter 2005."?
Regards,
Gerard ▲ Collapse
| | | | Peter Linton (X)
Local time: 19:02
Schwedisch > Englisch
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| Underlying purpose and IFRS | Dec 2, 2005 |
A couple of possible topics:
One interesting topic is the differences in the underlying purpose of financial reports and texts, and how this is reflected in the terminology. For example (a point I had not appreciated until recently), in some countries, notably continental Europe, the prime purpose of financial reports is to satisfy legal and tax requirements. So the key concept is prudence. In contrast, in other countries such as the UK and the US, financial reports are primarily ai... See more A couple of possible topics:
One interesting topic is the differences in the underlying purpose of financial reports and texts, and how this is reflected in the terminology. For example (a point I had not appreciated until recently), in some countries, notably continental Europe, the prime purpose of financial reports is to satisfy legal and tax requirements. So the key concept is prudence. In contrast, in other countries such as the UK and the US, financial reports are primarily aimed at capital market investors, and the key concept is "true and fair value".
Consequently, the terminology used in the former is geared towards terms that emphasise the financial strength, stability and prudence of the company, notably shareholders's equity. In contrast, terminology in the latter is less concerned with prudence and more concerned with giving potential investors a more positive impression, while still aiming for some sort of "true and fair view". As we have seen in recent years, this has led to some dubious accounting. Indeed, it is sometimes said that EBITDA really stands for Earnings Before Interesting Things and Dubious Accounting. Could that haopen in prudential countries?
One result of this dichotomy is that there may be terms in one country which have no equivalent in another - and that should provide fruitful ground for investigating these terminological differences and how they can be resolved in translations.
Another interesting topic might be the changes in terminology arising because of the switchover to IFRS, and how this is being handled in different countries. One effect seems to be a move away from prudential accounting to the looser Anglo-Saxon variety. ▲ Collapse
| | | | eva75
Englisch
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THEMENSTARTER
Gerard de Noord wrote:
Your profile doesn't reveal anything about you. Are you English? Are you living in England? If I had to write a thesis about terminology, and French and German were the other two languages, I'd study the influence of English on those two languages or any one of them. You could narrow it down to looking into the translations of EBT, EBIT and EBITDA, and terms like that.
Financial translators have to translate such terms, but they don't - in the Netherlands, because nobody wants to look foolish. But e.g. in the case of EBITDA this can lead to confusion and well-informed people losing money. Do English native speakers have an advantage when they read: "Rainmaker Reports Positive EBITDA in Third Quarter 2005."?
Regards,
Gerard
Sorry, I forgot to mention that English is my mother tongue.
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eva75
Englisch
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THEMENSTARTER | Possible sources of inspiration and information? | Dec 3, 2005 |
If noone can give me exact topics, perhaps someone could give me ideas as to where I could get some inspiration for this thesis, publications, other forums, etc. In fact I have to make out term records, over 50 of them, so I need to identify a area that presents some ambiguity for translators.
| | | | eva75
Englisch
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THEMENSTARTER
Seems as if no one has any ideas. Thanks to those who made contributions anyway.
| | | | Parrot
Spanien
Local time: 20:02
Spanisch > Englisch
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| Quite hard to decide/suggest someone else's thesis topic, see | Dec 5, 2005 |
But as you observed, financial translators might have pet themes/peeves of their own (I loved that one on Earnings Before Interesting Things and Dubious Accounting ).
You MIGHT just try looking at other people's terminology material posted on GlossPost (upper right-hand drop-down menus under "Community"). To get the broadest results, pick the general field "Business/Financial" (there are more specific BSO fields like... See more But as you observed, financial translators might have pet themes/peeves of their own (I loved that one on Earnings Before Interesting Things and Dubious Accounting).
You MIGHT just try looking at other people's terminology material posted on GlossPost (upper right-hand drop-down menus under "Community"). To get the broadest results, pick the general field "Business/Financial" (there are more specific BSO fields like "Accounting", etc., but you can try those later). And don't forget the monolingual ones.
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